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1 day ago | 
themorningline.substack.com | Paul Daugherty
I don’t know if peace of mind exists in the next world, or even if there is a next world. But I believe Pete Rose found some peace Tuesday afternoon. Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred’s announcement of Rose’s removal from the game’s permanently ineligible list was clunky, even by Manfred’s standards. "Obviously, a person no longer with us cannot represent a threat to the integrity of the game," Manfred wrote to Rose’s lawyer. How compassionate. Rose had to die to get his name back.
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2 days ago | 
themorningline.substack.com | Paul Daugherty
Here I am again, back for more cash while trying to sound philanthropic. You think I roll out FreeForAll Tuesday because I like you guys? Oh, no, my friends. I do it to seduce you into donating $8/month or $80/year to my impressive coffers. For that, you get 5 TMLs a week, direct to your Inbox. Uber Eats for the sportslorn. Sign up, or at least enjoy the weekly freebie. The Morning Line is a reader-supported publication.
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3 days ago | 
themorningline.substack.com | Paul Daugherty
What might have been at Broadway Commons*The Rockies benefit from the gift of geography. They play in a stadium with beauty as a permanent backdrop. For much of the season, the weather is strictly Chamber of Commerce. Winning is secondary at Coors Field, same as it is at Wrigley Field and Fenway Park. The thin Rocky Mountain air makes evaluating players a comedy. It has given hundreds of pitchers post-traumatic stress.
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6 days ago | 
themorningline.substack.com | Paul Daugherty
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1 week ago | 
themorningline.substack.com | Paul Daugherty
Subscribe to The Morning Line to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.
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1 week ago | 
themorningline.substack.com | Paul Daugherty
Geno Stone just took a 40 percent pay cut and he’s OK with it. He works for the Bengals of the National Football League. The NFL prints money in a factory deep in a cave in western Montana. It recently opened a second money factory in Pottstown, Pa., just to keep up with the demand for quarterback and wide receiver currency. Stone will earn $4.9 mil this year, down from $6.75 mil last year.
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1 week ago | 
themorningline.substack.com | Paul Daugherty
We just don’t know, do we? (NYTimes)*The Reds were 16-13 by midnight April 28. The good news flowed, because deep down, journos are fans. At that point, the bullpen was dynamic, the cavalry was either arrived (Austin Hays, Noelvi Marte) or on its way (Tyler Stephenson). Who was Emilio Pagan if not the answer to the Alexis Diaz question? Well. Keep reading with a 7-day free trialSubscribe to The Morning Line to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.
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1 week ago | 
themorningline.substack.com | Paul Daugherty
Welcome to FreeForAll Monday at the The Morning Line Lounge, where we sometimes don’t talk sports, but other things more important. Today we bid farewell and thanks. If you like it, TML is $8/month or $80/year, for five days a week of (usually) sports. Except on days like today. Enjoy. The Morning Line is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
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1 week ago | 
themorningline.substack.com | Paul Daugherty
A closer you could take to the bank. Now that relief pitching has become just as important as starting pitching (maybe moreso) bullpens should get more love and scrutiny. But old habits die hard, so we still judge a team’s pitching more by its starting rotation and depth than by its relievers. Can we say that at the moment, Emilio Pagan is as important to the Reds as Hunter Greene? Pagan is the de facto closer who has been brilliant (astounding numbers momentarily) so far.
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2 weeks ago | 
themorningline.substack.com | Paul Daugherty
*It’s foolish to conclude anything about your baseball team after 31 games and slightly more than one month. The game’s beauty and credibility derive from its long-march season. Even the best teams and their plans aren’t immune to batting slumps, torn arm parts and the general randomness inherent in 162 games. So how come I think the Reds, currently 16-15, are precisely who we expected?
